Although the egg represents an outstanding nutritional food, and a food that people enjoy eating, especially as part of the breakfast in the morning, the fact that it is one of the richest foods in cholesterol has forced an enormous number of people to avoid consuming eggs.
A large number of attempts have been made to answer this problem, but the solutions presented so far have been either totally or partially unacceptable.
This is because, up to the point of this invention, no practical and/or economically feasible solution has been found to incorporate a simulated and preferably a cholesterol-free egg yolk into egg-white and preserve them in separate phases, so that one can make for example a "sunny side up" or an "over easy" egg. Thus, the only economical but still highly compromised solution, which has been found commercially feasible thus far, has been the one according to which the egg yolk is removed and substituted usually by an equivalent amount of egg white, a yellow-orange food-colorant and small quantities of other adjuncts improving desired properties of the simulated egg. Since this type of a simulated egg has the consistency and appearance of mixed egg-whites with egg-yolks, it can only be used as "scrambled eggs", or omelette, or more generally in cooking recipes requiring mixed egg-yolks with egg-whites. This is a serious draw-back because it does not provide people with the option to have a cholesterol-free fried or poached egg having an egg-yolk in a separate phase from the white. An egg with the yolk in a separate phase from the white is highly desirable to a large number of people.
Such products are the subject of a number of U.S. patents. Representative ones, among others, are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,911,144, 3,987,212, 4,103,038, and 4,296,134.
A method of preparing an egg-yolk substitute and resulting products from its use is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,500. The invention of this patent is directed mainly to the addition of the resulting egg-yolk in recipes of products such as cakes, cookies, and the like, so that shaping and preserving the yolk in liquid egg-white is not important. Thus, no mention or suggestion on how to shape and preserve a shaped egg-yolk in liquid egg white is made.
A number of attempts have also been made in creating products, wherein the egg-yolk is combined with the egg-white in different phases, with limited success. These references do not disclose, suggest, or imply any methods of providing an egg having a monolithic egg-yolk in a separate immiscible phase within liquid egg-white before cooking, which egg-yolk is adequately non-flowable to retain its monolithic structure, but which yolk becomes controllably flowable after conventional cooking, in contrast with the present invention which provides such products and methods for making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,315 (Hawley) describes a solid simulated prepared egg product, wherein a solid cooked egg-yolk is surrounded with a solid cooked egg-white.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,732 describes a simulated cooked egg approximating a boiled, poached or fried hen's egg.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,825 (Hawley) provides a product resembling a hard boiled egg cut in half, by appropriately molding and coagulating egg-white.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,922 (Burkwall) discloses a shelf-stable cooked, simulated egg comprising specified amounts of egg-solids, edible water absorbing hydrocolloid, a high protein binding agent, water, and either sugar, sugar equivalents, or mixtures thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,892 (Glasser et al.) discloses an egg product made by molding a low cholesterol egg-yolk portion of critical formulation together with an egg-white portion, and subjecting the egg to freezing. In the preferred embodiment, the mold employed in forming the egg product is employed as the package.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,040 (Fioriti) discloses a wet egg-yolk which is combined with edible oil by high energy, high shear mixing, so that the cholesterol is extracted by the oil from the egg-yolk. At the same time the ratio of the polyunsaturated fats to the saturated fats increases. The yolk, after separation from the oil can become a constituent of various egg-products.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,249 (Forkner) describes a method according to which high energy agitation is applied to coagulated and uncoagulated egg-white portion to form a homogeneous, aerated egg white dispersion. The egg-white dispersion is then assembled with processed egg-yolk and the assembly is frozen.
The instant invention, in contrast with the previous approaches, provides novel ways of resolving this vexing problem. It also provides solutions to problems arising from ingredients migrating from the egg-white to the yolk and vice-versa.
In addition to the properties of the product itself, its packaging is also of utmost importance, because it has to be convenient for the consumer, efficient, and at the same time inexpensive, especially in cases in which it is highly desirable to have individual portions of eggs. The products existing in the market so far are offered in multiple portions per carton. This is not very objectionable in the case of eggs simulating mixed egg-yolks with egg-whites, but it would be more objectionable in the case of a product of the category disclosed in the present invention, where the egg-yolk is in a separate phase than the white. In such a case, it would be desirable to have individual portions of eggs containing one egg-yolk and the corresponding amount of egg-white per container.
Although one would not think that a flexible package, such as for example one made of inexpensive polymers, like for example polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, or polyethylene, could be suitable for this type of application, because the yolk could be easily destroyed during handling of the flexible package, it was found by Applicant that in contrast, a flexible package substantially filled with egg-white, forms a bulge within which the yolk is more than adequately protected. The present invention also provides means enabling the consumer to open such packages in a very easy and convenient manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,867 (Repko) discloses a bag assemblage comprising a gusset (inverse fold) across an edge of the bag and a weakened tear line within the gusset. However, the ways proposed for forming the weakened line, such as scoring by pressure or heat or using multi-ply structures, where one ply has been weakened along the tear line, are either non-reproducible or expensive respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,006 discloses a flexible package having a pleat formed along one edge to provide a pair of adjacent outwardly extending and readily graspable folds. The folds are reinforced by stiffening strips or by adhesive material, except along the fold line between the folds, so that when the folds are grasped and pulled apart the package will tear open along the fold line between the reinforced folds. One big problem that this approach confronts, is that the whole package has to be made of rather thin packaging material for the fold line to be easily tearable.
In contrast to these approaches, the present invention provides an inexpensive, highly efficient, and highly convenient to the consumer package, having a tearable opening and being suitable for packaging the simulated eggs of this invention, as well as any other products, regardless of whether they are liquid or solid, as explained hereinbelow.